About Budgets

Budgets help you track the total estimated effort or quantity of resources or materials and the cash flow required to complete a project. Before a project starts, the resource/cost manager, along with the operations executive, program manager, and project manager, determine scope and budget requirements, and set these high-level budget estimates at the EPS level. As requirements change, resource and financial support are adjusted to compensate for those changes. The individuals involved in project planning, funding, and financial support can estimate their budgets from the top down and log changes to the budget at any time from as early as the project planning stage to well after the project is underway. P6 tracks these changes, while retaining the original amounts.

Budget change logs help you keep track of budget alterations as they occur. The Current Budget field (original budget plus approved budget changes) and Proposed Budget field (original budget plus approved and pending budget amounts) incorporate changes so you have up-to-date and accurate budget information for each EPS node or project. These logs also provide a clear indication of the who, what, when, where, and why behind the approved or denied request.

Change amounts are not incorporated in the current budget until these amounts have an Approved status. Only authorized project participants can issue budget changes and mark them as approved. You can post a change amount as Pending; the program manager of the affected EPS node, or the project manager of the affected project, must then mark the amount as Approved or Not Approved. P6 recalculates the new budgeted amount and adjusts the current budget based on approved changes to the log.

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